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LEMUEL COX 



BY 



WALTER KENDALL WATKINS 




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Lemuel Cox 



BRIDGE BUILDER AND INVENTOR 



1736-1806 



By 

WALTER KENDALL WATKINS 

MALDEN. MASS. 



Printed for the Author 

1907 



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A MEDFORD TAX PAYER. LEMUEL COX, THE 
BRIDGE BUILDER AND INVENTOR. 

By Walter Kendall Watkins, Malden. 

JOHN COX, born, as he states in a deposition, on the 
east shore of the Kennebec River, just previous to 
King Philip's War, came later to Dorchester, where he 
married Susanna Pope and settled. At Dorchester was 
born his son William, who married in 1716, Thankful 
Maudsley, and had a numerous family, among whom was 
Unite Cox, born in 1723, who married Lydia Falkner, 
and settled in Maiden, becoming the ancestor of those 
of the name still living in Maiden. 

The youngest brother of Unite Cox was Lemuel, born 
in 1736. Of his early days we know little or nothing till 
his marriage intention was published in Boston, 14 April, 
1763, to Susanna Hickling, born 6 February, 1740, the 
daughter of William and Sarah (Sale) Hickling, of 
Boston, the great-grand parents of William Hickling 
Prescott, the historian. Sarah Sale was of a family very 
prominent in that part of Boston which later became 
Chelsea. 

The older residents of Boston and vicinity, are familiar 
with the elevation known as Fort Hill, which disappeared 
just after our Civil war. It took its name from a fort, 
erected upon the hill in the early days of the colony, and 
which was utilized in Boston's first Revolution, when 
the people rebelled against Andros and shut him up in 
the fort. Near the fort was a large stone house, built by 
the Gibbs family, probably the largest and most preten- 
tious, standing at that time in the colony. 



4 A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 

At the foot of the eastern slope of the hill was the 
South Battery, or Sconce, where the present Rowe's 
Wharf is located. Circling the base of the hill, inside 
the battery, was a walk from Milk street to Gibbs' lane 
(now Oliver street), called the " Battery March," a favor- 
rite walk for the townspeople. 

On the other side of the hill were ropewalks, between 
Oliver street and Long lane (afterward Federal street). 

Between Federal street and Summer street, were gar- 
dens and orchards, even as late as the last century. 

At the foot of what is now Milk street was Oliver's 
dock. 

It was in this vicinity, in 1765, that Lemuel Cox and 
his brother Jesse, bought a house and land of William 
Lowder. The lot was situated on the south side of 
Batterymarch street with a frontage of about eighty-four 
feet, and a depth of about one hundred and forty-five 
feet. In May, 1768, he bought thirty acres of land in 
Maiden of his brother Unite, which he disposed of in 
December, to John Wait, Jr. 

In the Spring of 1767 (30 May), we find him returning 
from South Carolina, on the schooner " Three Brothers," 
as " Mr. Lemuel Cox, wheelwright." 

After the Boston Port Bill, the patriotic element, as 
we would call them now, though the government then 
styled them as turbulent and disloyal, met in gatherings 
in August each year, and dined at the Liberty Tree in 
Dorchester. Among the diners, 14 August, 1769, was 
Lemuel Cox. 

As to the later sentiments of Lemuel Cox, investigators 
would be inclined to place him among those loyal to the 
Crown, as we find him in prison at Ipswich at the close 
of 1775, presumably for his attachment to the King's 
cause. 

In the year 1767, the Overseers of the Poor, for the 
town of Boston, reported they had paid out about ^600 
to poor people outside of the almshouse, and in 1768 
not less than ;^620. There were about two hundred and 



A MEDFORD TAX PAYER. 

thirty persons in the almshouse, and forty in the work- 
house that should have been in the almshouse. 

To relieve this situation it was proposed to employ 
two hundred of the poor of the town in spinning and 
carding. Schoolmistresses were to be procured and a 
number of spinning wheels and a quantity of wool ; and 
the same to be converted into yarn to be disposed of to 
several persons, lately arrived from abroad, who had been 
brought up and were master workmen in the manufact- 
uring of "shalloons, durants, camblitts, callamancos, 
duroys and legathies, and in general mens' summer ware," 
and who were determined to carry on business as soon 
as they could be furnished with a sufficient number of 
spinners to keep their looms employed. 

The town contracted with Mr. William Molyneux to 
furnish spinning wheels and cards and teach the poor to 
spin, for the next two years. 

One of the most important inventions in the manu- 
facture of all textiles was that of machine-made cards. 
These were the leather and wire cards with which the 
revolving cylinders were covered. Hundreds of fine 
wire teeth are set in a square inch of leather. The leather 
is pierced, the wire cut and bent twice into a loop, then 
thrust through the leather and bent into two knees. 
The angle at which the wire teeth strike the fibre is an 
important element in carding. In making the "hand 
cards," used for ages past, all this work was painfully 
manipulated. 

In 1770 Lemuel Cox invented a machine for cutting 
card wires, which machine was preserved by him through 
his lifetime. 

Soon one, John McGlench, unduly got a sight of the 
same, improved upon it and claimed to be the original 
inventor. After the Revolution McGlench was located 
at the corner of Washington and Bedford streets, and 
there did business as a card maker. Others also went 
into the manufacture. Giles Richards & Co., wool and 
cotton card manufacturers, were located at 2 Hanover 
street in 1789. 



6 A MED FORD TAX PAYER, 

By this invention of Cox at that early date, many 
thousands of pounds were saved to the Commonwealth 
by putting a stop to the importation of wool and cotton 
cards from Europe. 

It was probably at about this time while experimenting 
with wire for cards that Cox was the first to produce in 
the state of Massachusetts wire for fish hooks, and in- 
structed others in the first drawing of steel wire from 
half an inch down to the size of a hair. 

As the fisheries were one of the staple industries of 
Massachusetts, the value of his efforts can be readily 
appreciated. 

If disloyal during the Revolution, Cox was not so to 
a great extent or for a long period, as we find later that 
he was quite active in support of the patriots. After 
the war he petitioned the state for relief, and among 
other acts claimed to have established the first powder 
mill in the state during the war. Investigations have 
revealed where this mill was situated and that the first 
powder mill was at Andover, and they made powder 
there in the early part of 1776. Samuel Phillips, Junior, 
was the leading man in the enterprise but Cox's name 
not before appeared in print in connection with the 
works. 

In Dorchester, afterward Stoughton, the Everendens 
were makers of powder previous to the Revolution, and 
in Stoughton the state established a powder mill, nearly 
as early as the Andover scheme. The state also con- 
templated later a mill at Sutton. There is also said to 
have been mills at Bradford and Seekonk. 

Cox was prominently connected with the enterprise at 
Andover. He claimed to have put up the first powder 
mill in the state, and invented a machine for granulating 
the powder whereby one man could granulate five hun- 
dredweight in one day at the same time saving the labor 
of fifty men, and that he supplied the state with that 
necessary article at that time. 

Of his connection with the Andover scheme we have 



A MEDFORD TAX PAYER. 7 

fortunately preserved to us a document of the strongest 
weight — 

'' Andover, February 20, 1790- 
" This may certify that Mr. Lemuel Cox was employed in erect- 
ing the Powder Mill at Andover in the year 1776 that he discovered 
great mechanical ingenuity and rendered essential service in execu- 
ting that work. 

" Samuel Phillips, Jun." 

Near the close of the Revolution, in October, 1782, 
we find Lemuel Cox was residing with his family at 
Taunton. 

A petition signed by five hundred inhabitants of 
Boston resulted in a town meeting held Thursday, 10 
February 1785, in Faneuil Hall, with Hon. Samuel Adams 
as moderator. The first article in the warrant was to 
consider a petition of Thomas Russell and others for 
liberty to build a bridge over Charles river, where the 
ferry from Boston to Charlestown then ran. A vote in 
favor was passed with only two dissenting among thirteen 
hundred voters present. It was also voted for a com- 
mittee to prepare a petition to the General Court, and 
the town's representatives were instructed to support it. 
An act was passed, 9 March, 1785, by the legislature 
incorporating the scheme. John Hancock, Thomas 
Russell, Nathaniel Gorham, James Swan, Eben' Parsons, 
and others, their associates, were those interested. The 
bridge was to be forty feet wide, with a draw at least 
thirty feet wide. They were to pay Harvard College 
annually ^200, in compensation for the annual income 
of the Boston and Charlestown ferry. They were to 
receive certain tolls, which were to be double on Sunday. 

Preparations for building the bridge were at once 
commenced. Major Samuel Sewall was appointed archi- 
tect. He was of Marblehead and afterward, in 18 14, 
chief justice of Massachusetts. At Concord, Massachu- 
setts, however, there is the gravestone of Captain John 
Stone who died in 1791, which states he was the builder 
of the bridge. Lemuel Cox was appointed master work- 



8 A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 

man. The stock of the company consisted of one 
hundred and fifty shares, the par value of each of which 
was ^loo, a total of ^150,000. The first pier of the 
bridge was laid on the 14 June, 1785, and the last on 31 
May, 1786, and the bridge was opened to the public 17 
June, 1786. The bridge, as finished, was forty-two feet 
wide, upon seventy-five piers, each composed of seven 
oaken timbers, and four solid wharves and buttresses 
were laid with stone in different parts of the structure 
to sustain the wooden piers. It had on each side a 
passageway of six feet, railed in for safety, and was 
lighted at night by forty lamps, in lanterns mounted upon 
posts. 

The opening of the bridge took place on that great 
Charlestown holiday, the anniversary of the Battle of 
Bunker Hill, 17 June, and was attended with great en- 
thusiasm and the usual parade and festivities. At dawn 
of day thirteen guns, the number of the confederated 
states, were fired from Copps Hill in Boston, and Bunker 
Hill in Charlestown, as a federal salute. The bells in 
both towns w^ere rung and the musical chimes of Christ 
Church in Salem street were pealed. A large procession 
of the proprietors, state officials, tow^n officers and not- 
ables was formed at the Old State House, then the 
capitol. When the time came for moving, another federal 
salute was given from the Castle, and one from Copps 
Hill, as the cortege arrived at the draw of the bridge. 
Here the draw was fixed for their passage by Lemuel 
Cox, and the procession passed over it under a salute. 
On arriving at Charlestown it passed through the square 
and took its course to the battle ground of eleven years 
previous, and there received another salute of thirteen 
guns. On the historic field, untouched by improvements, 
a dinner was served to about eight hundred persons, 
seated at two tables of three hundred feet each, united 
by a semicircle, and festivities were continued till six 
o'clock in the evening. The number of persons viewing 
the celebration is supposed to have equalled the total 



A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 9 

population of the two towns. The arrangements for the 
day surpassed any that had ever been known in the 
neighborhood before. The bridge subsequently passed 
into the hands of the state for $25,000, 30 April, 1841. 
For his success Cox received a gratuity of $200 extra. 

The rude woodcut which adorned the head of one of 
the two broadsides circulated at the opening of Charles 
River Bridge was executed, as the printer says, by " that 
masterpiece of ingenuity, Mr. Lemuel Cox." It shows 
a detachment of artillery with cannon ready for firing, 
and a coach with four horses, and a footman behind, 
driving at full speed over the bridge. To do justice to 
the occasion of the opening there was issued a poem of 
forty stanzas of which the following are a sample : — 

1. *' The Smiling morn now peeps in view, 

Bright with peculiar charms, 
See, Boston nymphs and Charlestown too 
Each linked arm in arm. 

2. "I sing the day in which the BRIDGE 

Is finished and done, 
Boston and Charlestown lads rejoice, 
And fire your cannon guns. 

3. " The BRIDGE is finished now I say, 

Each other bridge outvies, 
For London Bridge, compar'd with ours 
Appears in dim disguise. 

****** 

23. " Now Boston, Charlestown nobly join, 
And roast a fatted Ox 
On noted Bunker Hill combine 
To toast our Patriot Cox. 

****** 

38. " May North and South and Charlestown all 
Agree with one consent. 
To love each one like Indian's rum. 
On publick good be sent." 

Powder and wire making were not the only benefits 
conferred on the public, beside bridge building, by Cox. 



10 A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 

In 1785 it was found necessary, for the safety of the 
people to find some place, other than the common jails, 
for the confinement of persons convicted of larceny and 
other crimes. Castle Island in Boston Harbor was 
selected, it then being owned by the state. Here was a 
garrison (of which the governor of the state was the 
captain) stationed under an officer, usually of the rank 
of major (as a lieutenant), with a gunner, surgeon and 
chaplain and a detail of privates. The gunner was 
William Hickling, brother-in-law of Lemuel Cox. 

The ofiicers appointed an overseer, to superintend 
the convicts' labor, in repairing the fortifications and 
picking oakum and making nails. This employment of 
convict labor in nail making was the project of Lemuel 
Cox, and he sent one of his sons to instruct the con- 
victs, sixteen in number. Of the commercial value of 
this industry there may be some question. The notori- 
ous Stephen Burroughs, in his interesting autobiog- 
raphy, interesting as showing a type of human character 
and throwing sidelights on the events of that day, gives 
his experience in nail making. 

His daily output at first was five nails each day, but 
each nail, as he states, was equal to anything you ever 
saw, in beauty and elegance, but the cost of each he 
reckoned at ten times the cost of iron and coals. The 
overseer expostulated on the small returns from his labor 
and the next day he was more expeditious and made 
five hundred nails, but they were all " horns and heads." 
The prisoners were in the habit of taking the nail rods 
and breaking them and throwing the pieces down the 
well, and vowing they made all they could, in nails from 
the rods furnished. The authorities then offered a gill 
of rum to those making a certain number of nails from 
their supply of rods. Burroughs cautioned his fellow 
prisoners of the trap, but the offer of rum was too 
tempting, and all were participants except Burroughs 
of the extra bounty. The next day no rum was served 
and the convicts afterward were forced to fashion the 



A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 11 

increased number of nails daily. The convicts remained 
on the island until about three weeks before it was 
turned over to the United States in 1798. 

2 April, 1640, the inhabitants of Charlestown voted 
that Philip Drinker shall keep a ferry to Maiden at the 
neck of land with a sufficient boat. For his services he 
had two pence for a single person and a penny each 
where there were more. This was the penny ferry of 
the first century and a half of the colony's existence. 

The route by land from Charlestown or Cambridge 
was by the Mystic Bridge that crossed the Mystic River 
at Medford, and was the successor at an early date of 
the bridge built at the ford near Cradock's house in 
Medford. The Mystic Bridge was used by the Maiden 
farmers for their cattle, teams and horses, and they con- 
tributed for many years towards its repair. 

After the completion of the Charlestown Bridge some 
of the gentlemen interested became identified with a 
project to build a bridge from Charlestown Neck to the 
Maiden shore near Sweetser's Point. Thomas Russell, 
Richard Devens, Samuel Swan, Junior, Jonathan Simp- 
son and William Tudor, were granted by the legislature 
this privilege, 11 March, 1787. It was built in six 
months and cost ;^5,300. It was opened to travel 
30 September, 1787, when a single cannon was fired 
and the workmen regaled with refreshments, a quiet 
affair compared with the 17 June celebration of Charles 
River Bridge the year before. The bridge was two 
thousand four hundred feet long, including the abut- 
ments, and thirty-two feet wide ; the draw was the de- 
sign of Lemuel Cox, and eight lamps Hghted the bridge 
at night. 

The instant success of two ventures in bridge build- 
ing made a strong impression on the flourishing mer- 
chants of Salem and Beverly, and, 13 June, 1787, a 
subscription was started to build a bridge between those 
two towns. Two hundred shares were at once sub- 
scribed for, and sixteen towns in Essex County favored 



12 A MED FORD TAX PAYER, 

it. Eighty-five poor widows of the Revolutionary War, 
resident in Manchester, with one hundred and thirty- 
five fatherless children, wanted it as a highway to Salem, 
where they carried their manufactured cloth. Danvers 
and a part of Salem opposed it. After a strenuous fight 
the project materialized, 17 November, 1787, with George 
Cabot, John Cabot, John Fisk, Israel Thorndike, and 
Joseph White as corporators. Before i March, 1788, 
they had contracted for pine and oak timber, made 
terms with Lemuel Cox to build the bridge, and settled 
other details. 

Cox was to be paid nine shillings a day and his board 
(including punch) for superintending the work. 25 April 
they added to Cox's pay a gratuity of $55, to be drawn 
when the bridge was done. About this time they con- 
tracted for ten gallons of New England rum, but it is 
probable that it was not all to be consumed by Cox. 

From the first some trouble had grown up between 
Cox and the directors, and this culminated, 19 July, by 
a vote to dismiss him, " it appearing improper that Mr. 
Lemuel Cox should be continued in their service for 
any longer time," it was therefore voted unanimously 
that he be discharged and that the sum of $55, being 
the whole of the gratuity promised to him, and his 
wages to this time, be paid to him in full. 

With the advent of September the bridge was near 
completion. The first pier was raised 3 May, 1788, the 
last pier 6 September, 1788. It was opened for public 
travel 24 September, 1788; its cost was $16,000. The 
bridge measured 1,484 feet without the abutments, which 
added thirty-six feet more. It had ninety-three piers, 
and a draw thirty feet wide, " which played with such 
ease that two boys of ten years old may raise it." 

Here is one item of interest: the tolls were farmed, 
and when George Washington, as President, crossed 
the bridge, shortly after the opening, the proprietors 
had to pay $7.80 tolls on Washington and his escort 
and suite to the lessee, Capt. Asa Leach, with whom 
Lemuel Cox had boarded while the bridge was building. 



A MED FORD TAX PAYER, 13 

Lemuel Cox's neighbor on the west, on Batterymarch 
street, was Robert Hallowell, who was Comptroller of 
the Customs under the king and who left Boston on 
the evacuation of 17 March, 1776. After the war 
Hallowell returned to America, and resided in the next 
house to Cox's till he removed to Gardiner, Maine, in 
1 8 16, where he died in 18 18. Hallowell, Maine, was 
named for him. 

Cox did not live on Batterymarch street, in his house, 
after the Revolution. It was a wooden house of two 
stories, with fourteen windows, and covered six hundred 
and eighty square feet. The land contained 2,786 square 
feet, and the whole was valued at ^1,800 in 1798, and 
occupied by Dr. John Frederic Enslin, a physician. 
Cox sold his property on Batterymarch street in 1801 
to Edw. Bartlett, Jr. 

In June, 1788, the selectmen gave Lemuel Cox a 
license to sell liquors at his shop, near Charles River 
Bridge, and in 1789 we find Lemuel Cox, millwright, 
living on Prince street. 

The census of the next year shows his family con- 
sisted of three white males over sixteen years, two white 
females over sixteen, and four white females under 
sixteen. 

Cox severed his connection with the Essex Bridge 
Corporation in July, 1788. Between that date and June, 
1789, he visited Ireland. It was probable his fame as a 
bridge builder had reached the Emerald Isle, and a de- 
sire for a bridge at Londonderry carried him to that 
town, probably in the spring of 1789, and he estimated 
the cost of a bridge there at ^10,000. Receiving en- 
couragement he returned to New England, and from 
Sheepscott, Maine, shipped a load of oak piles and 
twenty skilled workmen to complete the project. 

His connection with the Cabots and others, directors 
of the Bridge Company, made him familiar with another 
enterprise some of the directors were also interested in. 
I refer to the cotton factory, established at Beverly, 



14 A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 

which was mentioned, 6 January, 1789, "as a promising 
cotton manufactory," and it was stated apprentices were 
received as early as June, IjSg. 

It was in June, 1789, Lemuel Cox returned from Lon- 
donderry, and with him he brought, for the benefit of his 
country, as he states, a man, superintendent of a large 
cotton manufactory that had stopped working. With 
the man was his wife and " a curious machine whereon 
the Woman can spin fifteen pounds Cotton in one 
Day." 

Being familiar with the needs of the Beverly manu- 
facturers. Cox evidently saw an opening which he took 
advantage of. 

We are left in doubt as to the final destination of the 
cotton spinner and his wife, but from the activity of 
the works in the following October, when Washington 
visited them, we are led to think the curious machine 
may have been utilized at Beverly. 

His success in getting the machine from England 
was greater, from the fact the British government were 
quite strict at the time against the export of even the 
models of machines for manufacturing purposes. 

In 161 5 James I. granted to certain citizens of Lon- 
don, members of different livery companies or trade 
guilds, the town and fort of Derry, town of Coleraine, 
and other towns, villages, etc. They were known as 
the " Society of the Governor and Assistants, London, 
of the new Plantation in Ulster," and later as the " Irish 
Society.'* 

Among other privileges they had the right of ferryage 
and passage over the rivers Ban and Foyle. In 1769 a 
bridge was projected, but not till 8 June, 1786, the Irish 
Society assented to the proposition for erecting a bridge 
at Londonderry over the river Foyle. This was just 
one week after the last pier was laid for Charles River 
Bridge and a week before it was opened for travel. 

The probable success of the Boston enterprises with- 
out doubt was the cause of the determination to erect 



A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 15 

the Irish structure after Cox had finished his labors at 
home, and it was not until 29 April, 1789, that we hear 
further as to the Irish enterprise. It was then reported 
that the proposed timber bridge was estimated to cost 
^10,000. A memorial was then presented by the Cor- 
poration of Londonderry to the Irish Society, to obtain 
a lease of the tolls in perpetuity. On 15 July the So- 
ciety granted the request. 1 1 December, 1 789, the 
Society agreed to grant to the corporation a lease of the 
tolls in perpetuity, to enable the corporation to build a 
bridge and borrow money on the security of the tolls. 

The bridge, commenced in 1789, was completed by 
the spring of 1792. It was 1,068 feet in length and 
forty in breadth. The piles of American oak had the 
head of each tenoned into a cap piece forty feet long 
and seventeen inches square, supported by three sets of 
girths and braces. The piers were sixteen and one-half 
feet apart and bound together by thirteen string-pieces, 
equally divided and transversely bolted, on which were 
laid the flooring. On each side the platform was a rail- 
ing four and one-half feet high, also a broad pathway 
provided with gas lamps. Originally there was a draw- 
bridge, but it was replaced by a turning bridge. The 
original expense of its erection was ;^ 16,594. The work 
was a success, though an eminent English engineer, 
Milns, had pronounced it impracticable. On 6 Febru- 
ary, 18 14, a portion of the bridge three hundred and 
fifty feet in length was carried away by large masses of 
ice floating down the river, with a strong ebb tide, and 
high wind. The expense of the repairs of this damage 
was ^18,208, of which the government advanced a loan 
of ;^ 1 5,000. The absence of Cox and his skilled work- 
men explain the increased cost of the labor. Seventy 
years ago the annual amount of tolls of the bridge was 

In 1782 Lemuel Cox mortgaged his house in Battery- 
march street to William Lowder, and this mortgage was 
discharged 22 October, 1790, probably by his first pay- 
ment received in Ireland. 



16 A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 

Mr. Cox probably felt that bridge builders, as well as 
prophets, received but small honor in their own country, 
from his experience at Salem. In Ireland, however, his 
fame must have increased and spread the length of 
the land, for his labors in the north were known in the 
south in those days of poor communication and religious 
differences. 

At Waterford, on the southeast coast, a company was 
incorporated in 1793, who subscribed ;^30,ooo in ;^ioo 
shares to build a bridge over the Suir from the western 
extremity of the city to the northern suburb of Ferry- 
bank, where is now the joint terminus of the Waterford, 
Limerick and Western and the Waterford and Central 
Ireland Railways. The work was begun 30 April, 1793, 
the year the bill was passed for relieving the Roman 
Catholics from disabilities and admitting them to the 
parliamentary franchises. The bridge was opened 
18 January, 1794. It was built at a total cost of 
;^ 2 7,000, including ferry rights, and as it was below the 
estimate, only ^90 instead of ^100 was paid on each 
share. It is still the property of a company, which 
annually receives over ^6,000 in tolls. 

The following inscription is on the bridge : — 

A Year Rendered Sacred to National Prosperity, 

By the extinction of Religious Division, 

The Foundation of this Bridge was laid, 

At the Expense of Associated Individuals 

Unaided by Parliamentary Grant, 

By Sir John Newport, Bart. : 

Chairman of their Committee, 

Mr. Lemuel Cox, a native of Boston in America, Architect. 

The bridge is eight hundred and thirty-two feet in 
length and forty in breadth, supported on stone abut- 
ments and forty sets of piers of oak piles. 

The next undertaking of Lemuel Cox was the bridg- 
ing of the river Slaney to connect the northern end of 
Wexford town with the opposite bank. It was com- 
menced in 1794 and finished the next year, being built 
throughout of American oak, and 1,571 feet in length. 
The expense of the work was ;^ 17,000. It has since 



A MED FORD TAX PA YER. 17 

been superseded by stone causeways projecting from the 
opposite banks of the river, of the respective lengths of 
one hundred and eighty-eight and six hundred and fifty 
feet, connected by a length of timber structure seven 
hundred and thirty-three feet long. A quarter mile 
higher up has been erected a modern bridge. A pict- 
ure of the old bridge is preserved by the bridge com- 
missioners' seal. 

At New Ross, County Wexford, the Barrow river, 
after the destruction of an old bridge in 1634, was 
crossed by a ferry until the fame of Cox as a bridge 
builder reached the town, when a company was incor- 
porated by act of Parliament and ^11,200 raised by 
shares and a bridge of American oak constructed by 
Cox. Its length was five hundred and eight feet and its 
breadth forty feet ; it had a drawbridge and connected 
New Ross with Rosshercon. 

While in Ireland, Mr. Cox's family resided in Medford, 
and we find him taxed for real estate there in 1793-4-5. 
We extract the following item from the Columbian 
Centinel oi 15 January, 1794: — 

''14 January a son of Mr. Cox, the celebrated architect, in 
viewing a wild panther which a show man had in his possession 
in Medford was suddenly seized by the voracious animal and his 
head and face torn in a shocking manner so that his death would 
be a consolation to his desponding relatives. The strength of the 
animal was so great that five persons could hardly disengage his 
claws." 

Two of the sons of Mr. Cox were in Ireland with their 
father, Lemuel and William Cox. The latter married, 
in 1794, Catherine Hugone, in Dublin. A letter written 
by him in 1 794 to the editor of the Columbian Centinel 
is still preserved in print. 

MR. COX. THE ARTIST. 

In a late Centinel^ a paragraph, extracted from a Dublin paper. 

gave some account of Mr. Cox, the celebrated bridge architect, 

having been tried in a judicial Court, in that city, on a charge of 

inticing avtizans to quit Ireland. We are happy, by being in pos- 



18 A MED FORD TAX PA TER. 

session of letters from the son of that gentleman (Wm. Cox) now 
in Europe, to give some explanatory intelligence on the subject 
and present the following Extract of a letter dated Liverpool, 
May 29 : — 

"As bad news always flies fast, I suppose you may have heard, 
that my father was taken up and obliged to give bail in JC2000 to 
stand trial for (as was said) having seduced artificers. It was not 
the case, but as follows : — Three tradesmen came to him and 
asked how their business would answer in America. He very 
candidly told them. They wished him to advance them money to 
take them over but he told them it was of no service to him their 
going over, but if it was and he should do it he would be liable to 
500 fine and twelve months imprisonment. About three months 
after, one of these fellows took it into his head to lodge informa- 
tion against my father for which he stood trial and was honorably 
acquitted. The jury did not leave their box." ( Columbian Centi- 
nel, 23 Aug. 1794.) 

In 1666, on the second of September, a fire broke out 
on Fish street hill in London which burnt over thir- 
teen thousand houses, eighty-seven parish churches, six 
chapels, the Royal Exchange, Custom House, Guildhall, 
and other public buildings, among them fifty-two halls 
of the London Trade companies. 

To commemorate this disaster Christopher Wren de- 
signed a column known as the Monument, which was 
built of Portland stone two hundred and two feet high 
and fifteen feet in diameter. During the eighteenth 
century it was used for astronomical purposes, but it 
was found that it vibrated, and the alarm was so great, 
about 1795, that tradition states that while in Great 
Britain Lemuel Cox was approached by the Corporation 
of the City of London to take down the structure as 
being unsafe, but his price being too high the shaft still 
stands as one of the sights of London. 

25 February, 1790, Lemuel Cox prepared and pre- 
sented to the Massachusetts Legislature the following 
petition, some of the facts of which I have already 
presented : — 



A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 19 

"Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

" To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives 
in General Court assefnbled. 

" The petition of Lemuel Cox of Boston in the County of Suffolk, 
millwright, Humbly Sheweth — 

" That in the year of our Lord i77*^ your petitioner invented a 
machine for cutting card wires which m.achine he hath now by 
him. 

" That one John McGlinch and many others unduly got a sight 
of same and improved upon the same and then pretended to be the 
Original Inventors of such machine, whereby many thousand of 
pounds has been saved to this Commonwealth by putting an entire 
stop to the importation of Wool and Cotton Cards. 

" That your petitioner in the late War put up the first powder 
mill in this state. 

" That he invented a machine for granulating the powder where- 
by one man could granulate 500 weight in one day and at same 
time saved the labor of 50 men and supplied the state with that 
necessary article at that time. 

"That your petitioner is the sole inventor of the three draws 
on the late bridges in this state each upon different constructions 
whereby the conveniency of Vessels are greatly expedited in passing 
thro the Bridges. 

"That your petitioner was the first projector of employing the 
prisoners at Castle William in that valuable branch of Business of 
Nail making and that by the consent of the Commissary he sent his 
son to instruct the prisoners then at Castle William which were — 
16 in number — 

" That your petitioner lately constructed a wire mill for drawing 
steel wire for the making of fish hooks and that himself drew the 
first wire of that kind that ever was drawn in this state and that he 
instructed in the method of drawing that and all other kinds of 
wire from the bigness of half an inch down to the size of a hair. 

"That your petitioner gave encouragement and (for the benefit 
of his country) and brought over with him from Ireland in June 
last a man and his wife with a curious machine whereon the woman 
can spin fifteen pounds cotton in one day. That the man was the 
superintendent of a large Cotton Manufactury that had stopped 
working and that they were Reccommended by a number of Gentle- 
men of the first character in the City of Londonderry. 

" That your petitioner by reason of his attention to matters of 
Original inventions and by reason of his many losses and misfor- 
tunes humbly begs leave to say to your Honors that he is yet a 
Poor Man. 

"LEMUEL COX." 



20 A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 

This petition, written shortly after some of the events 
recited, received favorable action, and a grant was finally 
made, 26 January, 1796, of lands in the eastern parts, in 
the district of Maine, amounting to one thousand acres. 

If the claims recited had not been true, parties inter- 
ested were still alive, and could have refuted the state- 
ments in his petition. 

The delay in passing the resolve can be readily 
explained by the necessary absence of the petitioner in 
Ireland, where he was bridge building. 

The committee appointed in 1790 reported favorably, 
and that he should have one thousand acres in township 
No. 7, bordering on Gouldsborough, Maine. This land, 
shortly after the grant, was disposed of by him to one of 
the Amory family of Boston. 

William Priest was an English musician who came to 
Boston to play at the Haymarket Theatre in 1796, and 
kept a journal, which he published in 1802. He men- 
tions being introduced to Cox, the celebrated bridge 
builder: 

" Cox told him he constructed his bridges of wood and always 
endeavoured to give as little resistance to the water as possible the 
supports being numerous but slender with intervals between. 

" The idea first came to Cox from reading ^sop's fable of 
the ' Reed and the Oak.' The tempest bent the reed and tore up 
the oak by the roots. 

" He served his apprenticeship to a carpenter and it was late in 
life before he attempted bridge building. He proved his new^ 
theory on a small bridge in the country w^ith success. 

"He then contemplated the Charles River Bridge, a subscrip- 
tion was raised and the bridge built, he was rewarded with $200 
above his contract. 

" He built seven bridges in Ireland the largest at Londonderry, 
i860 ft long." 

He also states that Capt. John Stone, of Concord, 
Mass., was the architect of Charlestown Bridge. 

At Reed's Corner, at and near the junction of Main, 
Eden, and Mill streets, Charlestown, a century and 
more ago, was Mill Village. Mill Lane ran westward, 



A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 21 

and in the middle of the eighteenth century led to the 
mills and mill pond, now made land. 

At that time the mills were the property of Capt. 
Robert Temple, grandson of Sir Purbeck Temple, of 
Stanton Bury, Bucks, England. From the first settle- 
ment of Charlestown, Mill Lane had led to the mills and 
the mill pond, and near by was Mill Hill. 

The Webb family were here as millers, shortly after 
1700, coming from Braintree. Benjamin Stokes was 
the miller in the middle of the century, and purchased 
a share in the mills from Robert Temple, and the bal- 
ance from his widow in 1757. William Paine, miller, 
bought five acres of Robert Temple in 1768, and was 
the executor of Benjamin Stokes on his death. 

At the Battle of Bunker Hill part of the mill build- 
ings were destroyed, and the balance by the Americans 
in January, 1776, during the siege of Boston, as a mili- 
tary necessity. The buildings were eight in all. A 
large double dwelling, barn 30X 18, a mill house with 
two grist mills, store 60 x 24, another 30 x 16, a fulling 
mill with three pairs of stocks, a smoke house, wharf, 
and gates to the mill pond. The lot were valued at 
^800. At the corner of Main and Mill streets was the 
Cape Breton Tavern. 

Diana, daughter of William Paine, married Thomas 
Adams in 1768, and after his father-in-law's death Adams 
bought, in 1792, of the widow, Mary Paine, five acres 
north of where the mill stood. On his death his widow, 
Diana Adams, sold this to William Hawes and Lemuel 
Cox in 1797, and Cox bought Hawes' interest in 1801. 

The Mallett family also had mills and land in the 
vicinity, and from Isaac Mallett's executors Lemuel Cox 
bought two and one-half acres in 1798. Soon after this 
he erected mills, which he leased in 1801 and 1802. In 
1803 he sold the mill estate bought of Adams (except the 
lots leased and sold) to the Middlesex Canal proprietors. 

In 1 80 1 a bridge was contemplated between Boston 
and East Boston, about where the tunnel now runs 



22 A MEDFORD TAX PAYER. 

under the river. A shoal running out from the Boston 
side, it was the opinion of Lemuel Cox, who was con- 
sulted in the matter, that there was no doubt of the 
stability of a bridge properly erected at that place. 

This scheme was in the place of the projected Chelsea 
Bridge, and would save a distance of at least three- 
fourths of a mile on the route to Lynn, and the tolls 
of the Charlestown Bridge. The proposed Navy Yard 
at Charlestown killed the East Boston Bridge project. 
If it had been erected the Navy Yard would have been 
located lower down the river, and large ocean steamers 
would not now lie at the Charlestown docks. 

In 1803, at a town meeting of Nantucket, it was voted 
to petition Congress to assist the town in digging a 
channel from Brant Point to the outer bar. Some de- 
sired to include in the scheme the building of stone piers 
from Coatue Point and Brant Point to the outer bar. 

A survey of the harbor was made in the summer of 
1803 by John Foster Williams and Lemuel Cox, and 
they reported it would be expedient to build wooden 
piers to protect the channel, one to extend from the 
northwest point of Coatue to the southwest corner of 
the black flats, the other to begin about one-third of the 
distance from the end of Brant Point to the Cliff and 
to extend to the northeast corner of CUff Shoal, both 
upon straight lines. A report was made to the Federal 
government, 28 October, 1803, but the scheme was not 
accomplished. 

Of the family of Lemuel Cox, we know that William, 
who married in Dublin, died in Savannah. 

Lemuel, who also visited Ireland, became a sailor. 
On a voyage to the Pacific he, with two others, vv^hile 
exploring a river, was deserted by his vessel and never 
heard of afterward. He left a widow and two children. 
Lemuel Cox, wheelwright, of Charlestown, was adminis- 
trator of the estate of Lemuel Cox of Boston, mariner, 
30 July, 1799, and it was, therefore, previous to that date 
the son disappeared. 



A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 23 

John Sale Hickling Cox married, i6 June, 1803, at 
the HolHs street church, Nancy Lewis, b. 7 May, 1778. 
His wife died a few months after the wedding, 10 Decem- 
ber, 1803. He was a Heutenant in the war of 181 2, and 
resided in Reading. 

Nancy Lewis and her brother Isaiah were children 
of Winslow Lewis, and their nephew was the late Dr. 
Winslow Lewis. 

After the war J. S. H. Cox married Mrs. Arabelle 
Percelle, and lived in Charleston, S. C. He had two 
sons, Roland and William. 

James Cox lived in New Bedford, where he married 
a Miss Tabor, a Quakeress. He moved to Ohio, where 
he died, leaving three sons. 

His son Lemuel, a beneficiary by Lemuel Cox's will, 
sold his share in the estate of Lemuel Cox, deceased, to 
Rufus Bracket in 1827, his cousin Mary Ann Dadley's 
husband, as did the other grandchildren. 

Susanna Hickling Cox married, 10 November, 1793, 
Simon Tufts of Medford, and had Eliza, Rhoda, Harriet 
L., Simon {b, 29 November, 1800), and Susanna H. 
Tufts, Eliza married Richard Brownell. 

Harriet's name was changed to Harriet Lewis, and 
she married William Johnson, jeweller, lived in Boston 
and Quincy, and had Laura Ann Lewis, b. 8 November, 
1806; Lavater, b. 6 March, 1809. (Being born after the 
death of Lemuel Cox they were, of course, not legatees.) 

Elizabeth Brightman Cox married George Dadley in 
Medford, and had Mary Ann, James Lemuel Cox, and 
Eliza Dadley. 

Mary Ann Dadley married, 29 June, 181 8, Rufus 
Bracket, and Eliza Dadley married Rev. Josiah Brackett, 
a Methodist clergyman. 

Harriet Ann Townsend Cox, b, 1784, d. 9 February, 
1 86 1. Her marriage intention to Capt. Isaiah Lewis 
was pubHshed 15 November, 1805; 7n. December, 1805, 
in Boston. He was b. 14 June, 1776; d. 20 April, 1822, 
at sea. They had — 



24 ^ MED FORD TAX PAYER. 

I. Susanna Hinkling Lewis, b, 24 August, 1806; d. 

(intentions published 21 December, 1829); m. 

24 February, 1830, to Joseph Willard of Lancaster 
(son of President Joseph Willard of Harvard Uni- 
versity), clerk of the Superior Court. He was b, 
14 March, 1798; d. 12 May, 1865. Their son. Major 
Sidney Willard, b. 3 February, 1831, was killed at 
Fredericksburg, 13 December, 1862. 
n. Isaiah William Penn Lewis, b. 15 June, 1808; d. 
iS October, 1855, a topographical engineer, who 
introduced a mode of lights in our lighthouses in 
use during Civil War and after. 
Lemuel Cox made his will, 18 January, 1806. He 
devised to his five children, John S. H., James, Susanna 
H. Tufts, Elizabeth B., and Harriet A. T. (Lemuel and 
William, being dead, were not named), %\ each. To 
his grandchildren, an equal share of the residue. He 
died 18 February, 1806, and his will was proved 13 May, 
1806. The inventory amounted to about $20, and the 
estate was insolvent from the claims against it. Li 18 19 
an account filed by the executor, Samuel Swan, Jr., of 
Medford, exhibits a house near Charlestown Bridge, and 
money from the Canal proprietors, which left a balance 
above his debts of $2,555, to be divided into ten shares, 
and his grandchildren, as legatees, Eliza, Rhoda, Harriet, 
Simon, and Susanna Tufts; Mary Ann, James, Lemuel 
Cox, and Eliza Dadley ; and Lemuel, son of James Cox, 
received each $255.57. 

In 1787, Ezekiel Decosta of Boston married Rebecca 
Hickling, the youngest sister of Lemuel Cox's wife. 
Their son, Ezekiel Carver Decosta, was the father of 
William Hickling DeCosta, editor of the Charlestown 
Advertiser for twenty-six years, and of Rev. Benjamin F. 
DeCosta of New York, an Episcopal clergyman. 

John and Mary DeCosta were also living in Charles- 
town in 1797. 

Of one of these families was, probably, Timothy 
Decosta, with whom Lemuel Cox boarded at the time 



A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 25 

of his death. An item of §489.13 for board was brought 
against the estate of Lemuel Cox, but it was contested, 
and a suit brought against the executor. 

Other claims against the estate not allow^ed were one 
each of $6,000 by WilHam McKean, tobacconist, on Ship 
street, and his wife, and John Callender, a lawyer. 

The executor of the estate. Captain Samuel Swan, was 
born in Charlestown in 1750. He w^as a mariner, and 
neighbor of Lemuel Cox at Mill Village, selling his 
house in 1803 to the Middlesex Canal proprietors and 
moving to Medford. 

He was a soldier of the Revolution under General 
Lincoln, who appointed him quartermaster-general wdth 
rank of major during Shay's Rebellion. He was also a 
deputy collector of revenue under General Brooks. 

When Cox's estate was pronounced insolvent, Laomi 
Baldwin and Asa Peabody were the commissioners ap- 
pointed, but Baldwin soon resigned to go to Europe. 

Bought by his daughter, Betsey Dadley, in 1803, after 
the sale of his mill property to the Middlesex Canal pro- 
prietors. Cox had a house on Main street near the Charles- 
town Bridge, now Charlestown Square. It adjoined the 
house in which Ammi Ruhamah Tufts lived, and was 
between that house and a new brick house built by 
the Hon. Thomas Russell, great-grandfather of the late 
Dr. John Langdon Sullivan of Maiden, which stood on 
Water street, between Charlestown and Warren Bridges. 

This large house, after Russell's death, became a hotel, 
known as " Gordon's," " Nichol's," " Charlestown Hotel," 
" Pierce's," " Brick Hotel " (1817), and finally, the " Mid- 
dlesex Hotel," till burnt in 1835. 

This fire of 28 August, 1835, the most destructive in 
Charlestown since the Battle of Bunker Hill, destroyed 
the house in which Lemuel Cox died. 

"In Charlestown, Capt. Lemuel Cox, an eminent mechanic, 
aged 65. The funeral will proceed from his late dwelling house 
in Charlestown, tomorrow, at half past three o'clock ; where his 
friends and relations are requested to attend without further invi- 
tation." 



26 A MED FORD TAX PAYER. 

This was his obituary by the newspaper of the period. 

My interest, primarily, in the subject of this sketch, 
was aroused from the credit given him as builder of 
Charlestown Bridge. I was, therefore, somewhat sur- 
prised when former Mayor Rantoul of Salem stated 
before the Essex Institute, of which he was the presi- 
dent, in an article on the Essex Bridge at its centennial, 
that the builders " made terms with Lemuel Cox, an 
eminent English engineer, to build the bridge." A few 
years later I read on Waterford Bridge, in Ireland, that 
it was built by " Mr. Lemuel Cox, a native of Boston, in 
America, Architect ; " and visiting at the same time Wex- 
ford, New Ross, and Londonderry, I learned of his work 
there. 

In recent years, in investigating, I found that he was 
not only with a claim for fame for his work in bridge 
building, but also for inventions, among them for his 
introduction of textile machinery, previous to the arrival 
of Samuel Slater, to whom the credit has been accorded 
in the histories of textile industries. 

Traditions, after the lapse of a century, still show his 
type of character and tell of his life in Ireland and domes- 
tic life here ; that he was a genius with the eccentricities 
of genius ; that he returned from Ireland rich in money 
and beautiful gifts of every description, but died a poor 
man, under unhappy conditions. 



